Christmas Dreams
by Sapphire Insanity
Summary: Because even bad guys can dream and, sometimes, have their wishes come true, even if it isn't in the most ordinary of ways.


**Disclaimer;** I don't own Pokémon or anything that you recognise in this story... which would be basically everything but the plot.

**A/N; **I know it's slightly late for Christmas, but my internet was being annoying on my, so joint Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you enjoy this short little story; it actually won first place in the competition on bulbagarden forums last year. Technically... I messed up when I read the rules so though I was named first place I didn't actually _get _it. Still, it's the thought that counts, right? Enjoy!

**Christmas Dreams**

It was cold.

Snow was gently falling and touching the earth, covering the ground in a thick white blanket, though it was one that could chill to the bone. All was quiet as the sun lowered itself beyond the horizon and darkness dashed across the sky.

In the dim glow of the evening only one light flickered, coming from a sturdy but cold and hand-made igloo in the middle of a field of snow. Slowly even that light dissipated as the current occupants of the igloo covered any holes that could potentially let even more of the cold in.

"Don't see how this helps," Meowth grumbled, rubbing his frozen paws together a few times before digging in the snow again and scooping some up in order to paste it over a hole. "We're in an _igloo_... how warm can it get?"

"Not very," sighed one of the cat Pokémon's human companions, James.

"We'll get it as warm as possible," said red-haired Jessie determinedly, smoothing down some snow. "Anything will be better than spending the night out in _that_."

The three looked out one of the remaining cracks in their shelter. Snow was starting to fall and a light wind was beginning to pick up. It had all the makings of a blizzard tonight.

"Point taken," said Meowth.

Finally they finished and the igloo was as secure as it was going to get. Shivering, they huddled around the small fire that they had managed to create. James looked mournfully at the pitiful pile of sticks they had had the time to collect.

"That's not going to last us," he said.

"We can make it last," Jessie said, teeth fairly chattering as she drew her knees to her chest in order to preserve as much warmth as she could.

"For how long?" Meowth asked.

The three of them fell silent, none of them knowing the answer and none of them liking the thought that it could only be a short while before they had to go without the fire.

"This would have never happened if we hadn't lost the twerps," Jessie finally said, breaking the silence.

"How were we to know they would take another path?" Meowth asked rhetorically.

"You would think it would be hard to lose someone amongst all this white," Jessie said wryly.

"And tomorrow would have been such a good day to get the jump on the twerps," Meowth said, a distant look in his eyes as he imagined it.

His two human companions stared at him.

"Tomorrow is Christmas Day," James pointed out needlessly.

"I know that," Meowth said.

"Even crooks deserve the day off!" James said.

"No, James, think about it a moment," Jessie said, frowning slightly as she thought about the idea. "On Christmas Day the twerps would have been expecting to be free of us; so they wouldn't have expected it if we tried to steal Pikachu!"

They thought about it for a moment. The idea that they might have finally been able to capture Pikachu was very tempting. However...

"We lost that chance," Meowth said, bursting the bubble. "We're stuck in the middle of nowhere while they're most likely cozy-ied up to a nice warm fire and waiting for midnight."

Jessie and James eyed their fire. It was barely giving them any warmth, and the only reason they would be up until midnight would be to make sure they didn't go to sleep in the cold snow.

It was hardly fair, but it was just the way it was. The good guys had no worries and could spend their Christmas Eve night in as close to luxury as they could manage. While the bad guys sat in the snow and froze.

"You know, I remember Christmas as a child," James said reminiscently. "We used to decorate our mansion with tons of decorations, and on Christmas Day there would be a mountain of present waiting for me!"

"Whoop-di-do," Jessie said dryly. "I was lucky the Christmas I got a toy soldier and an ice cone."

"At least youse had Christmas," Meowth said. "On the streets they don't celebrate Christmas, and I never remembered when it was anyway!"

A slight chill suddenly went around the little igloo, obviously a remnant of the wind that had blown through not too long ago. The three Team Rocket members shivered in unison and surreptitiously edged closer to each other.

"I do remember, though," Jessie said suddenly, causing her companions to look at her. "Christmas was always happy."

"Happy?" Meowth asked.

"How so?" James asked at the same time.

"Even though I didn't get a lot of presents, Christmas was in winter, my favourite time of the year," she explained. Her face softened into a smile. "And mum and I used to play in the snow and we'd have such fun on Christmas Day, to make up for the fact that we didn't have the decorations and presents and fancy food that you had, James."

"I guess," said James. "If you put it that way my Christmases were completely miserable; I was always by myself and I only had my toys and sometimes Growlie to keep me company on those cold winter nights."

"I guess Christmas wasn't so bad," Meowth said, shrugging. "I remember once a kindly old couple took pity on me and let me stay the night. Then I found out they wanted to catch me and I hightailed it out of there... but still. The house was warm and the decorations were nice and the food was good."

Silence fell upon them again. Outside the igloo they could hear the wind had picked up; true to their predictions a blizzard was beginning to brew, and it was enough to make them grateful that they at least had a little shelter for the night.

Jessie found herself gazing around the small igloo. She was shivering in the snow, she was half-afraid that the igloo would collapse under the force of the blizzard at any moment, and they had lost the twerps.

The entire situation was incredibly disheartening. Why should they, even if they were Team Rocket, have to spend Christmas Eve like this? Cold, hungry, alone...

Well, not quite alone. She shot a glance at Meowth and James. Was it enough that they had each other at the very least? Perhaps it would be best to move onto other subjects, though, because remembering past Christmases was starting to get a little depressing the more she thought about the current Christmas.

And then, suddenly, Jessie had an idea. It seemed that Christmas was not going to be coming to them that year. They had been missed out, dumped in the middle of nowhere with no hope of moving forward until the snow had cleared a little.

But that didn't mean that they couldn't bring Christmas to themselves.

Jessie sat up a little straighter, an action that went unnoticed by James and Meowth, who were currently last in the past. The idea was slightly wild. They had nothing to work with but the snow around them.

Slowly, almost as though she was in a dream, Jessie scooped up a handful of ice. This time James and Meowth snapped out of their thoughts in order to look at her, startled by the strange look on her face.

"What's wrong, Jessie?" James asked.

"We're going to celebrate Christmas!" she announced, making her decision.

Her human and Pokémon companions stared at her, dumb-founded.

"I think the cold has gone to your head, Jessie," Meowth said finally, voicing the thought that James wouldn't allow himself to, lest he get yelled at. "Because there ain't no way we'll be celebrating Christmas in the middle of this."

Jessie glared. Had the roof not been so small she might have stood up. As it was she was only able to straighten her back a little bit more so she could stare down at the cat Pokémon.

"The cold _has not_ gone to my head," she said forcefully, drawing up all the indignation she could muster; most of her energy was going into shivering. "If I say we're going to celebrate Christmas then we're going to celebrate Christmas."

There was nothing to say to this. Jessie was on one of her tangents, and there were only two things that would be able to draw her out of it; doing the impossible and actually succeeding, or the imminent failure.

"And how will we celebrate?" James asked slowly.

"Because, in case you haven't noticed, there's nothing around us but snow," Meowth said, pointing out what he considered to be the major, but not only, flaw in her plan.

"And a roof over our head," Jessie said in a parody of a reasonable argument. "That's all we'll need."

James and Meowth shared a look and silently decided to just go along with it to keep their eardrums intact.

"Alright, what do we do," Meowth sighed resignedly.

"Watch!"

Jessie scooped up some snow and patted it until it formed a large round base. Then she dumped some more snow on top of it and clumsily patted it down too. Soon it became apparent that she was starting to make a cone shape.

"Is that supposed... to be a tree?" Meowth asked doubtfully.

"What do you think?" Jessie snapped, jerking her hand as she frowned at him.

Unfortunately that jerk sent the entire small structure tumbling down. Jessie stared at it, set her jaw, and started again.

As Meowth and James watched she tried to make her cone – tree, they reminded themselves – stand as tall as she could make it. Jessie seemed bound and determined to succeed in this endeavour... but soon, after it fell down the fifth time, even she was forced to admit defeat.

"Fine!" she said loudly. There was still a determined spark in her eyes. "I can still make snow cones!"

It seemed this might work... but the idea of snow cones was having something to wrap them in. And, as Meowth and her own thoughts had told her, there was nothing around them but snow, snow, and more snow.

Lips set in a thin line, Jessie attempted to roll the snow into small balls. But her hands were trembling slightly and they easily broke apart.

It seemed that her idea had failed. They wouldn't be celebrating Christmas after all...

"You know," Meowth suddenly spoke up. "I don't think you were doing that tree quite right. Give me a try."

Jessie's head jerked up and she stared as the cat Pokémon scampered over to her failed sculpture and started rebuilding it. A sound of musing from James made her look his way.

"We should build a snow man here," he said, pointing at a random spot.

"Why?" Jessie asked blankly.

"Well, when you have snow you build snow men!" James said, smiling. "And it will make a good decoration."

Jessie blinked. A good decoration... Christmas decoration? As she watched James began rolling a large ball of snow to make the body of the snow man. She looked back down at her snow cones, or now snow rolls, and smiled.

"You know, I used to like Christmas carols," Meowth suddenly said, pausing in his work. He had successfully gotten their "tree" to stand and was currently carving something into it with his claws. "I heard some being sung every now and then."

"They always were fun to sing to," James said. "My favourite was 'Jingle Bells'."

"Really?" Jessie asked. "I always liked 'Santa Clause is Coming to Town' before I thought he stole my dolly."

The three paused for a moment with frowns, remembering the Christmas that they had discovered the truth. Then, as though they had made a silent, unanimous decision, they threw the bad memory off.

"I still say 'Jingle Bells' was better," James argued. "It was easy to remember."

"I still remember the words," Jessie said. "_Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells..._"

"_Jingle all the way,_" James continued.

"_Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh,_" Meowth sang, horribly off key. His human companions looked at him in surprise and he shrugged. "What can I say; it was catchy."

Surprised laughter rang out and echoed around the little igloo, momentarily filling it with cheer. Soon they were sitting around their pitiful fire again, but this time there were a few differences. A faceless snow man sat on one side. A cone of snow sat opposite, a few leaves and baubles drawn into it. Some badly drawn Santa Clauses, trees and garlands had been carved into the walls of the igloo. And Jessie's snow rolls sat in a pile.

"Not a very traditional Christmas," Meowth commented.

"What would you know about a traditional Christmas?" Jessie asked.

"Good point."

"I agree with Meowth," James interrupted. "This will certainly be different to any Christmas I remember." He suddenly smiled. "I think I'll like this Christmas the best."

They looked at each other. The fire must have grown a little; surely that was the explanation for the sudden warmth that had suffused them? But it seemed a little brighter too, and the storm outside seemed to have become just distant background music.

Maybe it wasn't just the fire. Maybe it was the knowledge that, despite their many failures and countless blast offs, and despite their many ups and downs, they were still here now, on Christmas Eve, making the best of a bad situation.

"Things will look up after Christmas," Meowth proclaimed. "We'll finally capture that Pikachu."

"Maybe," said Jessie contentedly. For once she didn't want to think about Pikachu or the twerps, not on her own personal little Christmas. "That can wait until after, I think."

From the answering smiles she got she knew that they didn't mind that in the least. This was _their_ Christmas and the twerps couldn't ruin this for them. For now they could bask in this small comfort that they had created and exist in their private little peace that revolved an igloo, a small fire, badly created decorations and the smiles they gave each other.


End file.
